


All It Takes

by ryuutora



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Alternate Universe - X-Men, Definitely gonna focus a lot on daisuga in the future tho, Disabled Character, F/F, F/M, Literally they're all mutants, M/M, More tags to be added as work progresses, THERE WILL BE SADS THOUGH BE WARNED, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-05-24 11:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6152377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryuutora/pseuds/ryuutora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is all it takes, really. Two hands clasped in fellowship, pledging to build something better." - Charles Xavier (Earth 616)</p><p>It's hard to be different in a society that treats abnormalities like a death sentence. It's harder to be different down to the tiniest details of your very own genetics, with no options available to change what most people consider a "curse." In a lonely little boarding school in the heart of the Miyagi prefecture of Japan, a small group of mutants do what they can to protect and care for every child who lands on their doorstep, and teach them how to survive in the world that thinks they're monsters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. House of Gold

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise I've actually just been Marvel trash masquerading as anime trash this whole time!  
> This chapter is just a tiny introduction to the world of HQ!! X-Men which is so PAINFULLY INTRICATE I HAD TO MAKE CHARTS.  
> CHARTS!!  
> Anyway here's Suga's backstory bc he's probably gonna get the most attention in this bc I love him.

    Koushi doesn’t look up when his mother unlocks the door and enters his room. He doesn’t look up when she starts opening and closing drawers around him, just hunching further over his workbook as the noise grows. He does, however, raise his head and turn fully in his chair as she sweeps past him, frowning and folding his hands over his lap, pencil and all, the way mom showed him to sit when he’s in public and especially in fancy places. “Mama?”  


    “Yes, Kou?” she says impatiently, stuffing clothes haphazardly into his dresser. Koushi grimaces; those are going to be very wrinkly later if he doesn’t fix them.  


    “You’re sad.”  


    She stops with a pale blue polo shirt bunched up in her hand, black hair hiding the amalgam of expressions that she cycles through before settling on cautious concern. “How do you know that, honey?” she asks saccharinely, twisting her face into a reassuring smile. Koushi is no fool; he places his pencil on his desk and closes his book, where he’d been practicing spelling rhyming words.  


    “I can feel it,” he explains, as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world (and it is, to him, because he doesn’t know any better). “It’s making me sad, too, mama. But I’m really happy right now because you helped me.” He stands and scurries to her side, pulling her into an embrace once she's within reach. “Thank you, mama. Can you be happy, too?”  


    And she can’t understand how (or maybe she can, and has been too afraid to admit she’s known all along), but she feels the warmth of pure elation throughout her whole body as she hugs him back.

* 

    Koushi is finished his homework by the time the door to his room flies open again, exacerbating the dent in the wall. He drops his DS in shock, not recovering fast enough to rescue it -- it bounces off the edge of the bed and hits the floor, both screens going black. “Uh oh,” he says under his breath, but it’s drowned out by the thunderous stomping of his father as he makes his way around the room, doing the same as his wife had earlier, opening and slamming drawers heedlessly. Instead of putting clothes into them, though, he empties them into a garbage bag. “I told you,” he snaps at Koushi. “What did I tell you?”  


    It’s not an uncommon situation in this house as of late, but that doesn’t make him like it any more. He draws his knees up to his chest and pouts. “That I couldn’t have them.”  


    “That’s right. And I told your mother that, too. But did she listen? No, of course not, because she’s always _right_ , and I’m always wrong, but not this time. Not this fucking time.” His father is muttering furiously to himself at this point, going so far as to even take his new socks and underwear and cram them into the bag he’s holding, which looks ready to admit defeat at any moment, black plastic stretched so thin in places that it’s light grey. “You don’t wanna be like her, okay? Don’t be like her, she’s selfish and won’t admit that she has faults and she lets shit like _this_ happen.” He gestures to the now-overflowing garbage bag and anger clouds his eyes. “Shit like _this_ ,” he says again, using his foot to smash one of the drawers lying dejectedly on the floor.  


    The doorframe splinters a bit more when he leaves. Koushi slowly lowers himself to the ground, careful not to make any noise that might draw his father’s attention back to him, and retrieves his poor DS. It refuses to power up no matter how many times he tries, but he supposes this really isn’t the time to announce that he ruined it to his parents, so he wanders over to the bookshelf instead. 

* 

    “Why didn't you tell me before!”  


    “I didn't think you'd take it well! I know how you are, Hitoshi, and I know it's unnatural and you're just so…so _against_ them and I just want him to be safe. He's my baby and I don't want him to know how we treat his kind.” There's a momentary silence and then the creak of one of the old dining room chairs as someone settles into it. Koushi presses his ear more firmly to the door as the quiet drags on. “I think it's getting worse,” his mother says finally. “I'm scared. Of what he'll be able to do if this goes on.”  


    “It's alright, Yukiko; we don't have to live with it, okay? That kid is causing us too much trouble lately. We can just...leave her at an orphanage or something. I don't know. It's just too much shit to deal with.”  


    The chair clatters to the floor and suddenly his mom is yelling again -- Koushi can picture the way she draws herself up to match his father in height, pulls her hands into fists, scowls furiously with fire in her eyes. “I know that you will not tolerate a mutant in your family but _I_ will not fucking tolerate you disrespecting who he is. Not anymore. I don't care what's right and normal and whatever the hell else you want to say about it but he is our son and he deserves to be treated like a human being!”  


    Her slippers drag across the floor, back and forth several times. Koushi wonders if his father is going to say anything. He must be in shock; she doesn't often stand up to him like that. “There's a school,” she continues eventually. “Ukai’s Academy or something like that. It's in the prefecture, and I found it when I was trying to find safe places for him to go. It's a haven for mutants disguised as a boarding school and hardly anyone knows about it. We can take him there.”  


    “I don't want my daughter going to some damn freakshow school! I want her to be with normal people and grow up like a normal person. It doesn't help anything that you're encouraging any of this bullshit! And a...a… _special school_!? What is that going to help? They'll probably teach her how to kill humans or--”  


    Koushi doesn't have to see what's happening to know that was the sound of someone getting slapped. More than likely, his dad. He's grateful for that much, because when he talks about Koushi like he's a girl it makes his stomach hurt. He shuffles back to bed and pulls the blankets over his head as the argument rages on outside.  


    When they're in bed, he'll use dad's computer to research that school mom was talking about. Mom usually doesn't lock his door at night anymore, and though he may only be 6, he's sure he's resourceful enough to get himself to wherever he needs to be.  


    It isn't as long of a wait as he was expecting. They take long enough to break a few things, scream some more, and then the lights go off and the house goes silent. He makes his bed (he can at least leave his room clean to save his mother the trouble once he's gone) dumps his school supplies out of his backpack and onto the desk, where he stacks the books neatly and puts everything else into the drawers, and leaves his room. The door, as he expected, is unlocked. He closes it as quietly as he can manage and scurries down the hall to the living room, where dad's computer is set up. He already knows the characters for “academy”, though it’s a bit of a struggle to get the right characters for “Ukai”. He's used the computer before so it doesn't take long for him to find the right page for Ukai’s Academy, between that and his limited reading skills, and to find himself a way to get there. Three hours on foot -- not too bad. He can read well enough to know which streets he's supposed to walk on, and takes the time to copy the directions down as well as he can before going to the washroom to pack his toiletries into his otherwise empty bag.  


    At the front door, he takes a moment to think about what he's about to do. It isn't much thinking. He's only 6, his dad hates him, he's caused his mom way too much trouble, and he's different from them in a way that's apparently very bad. But there are other people who are different the way he is, too, and he knows exactly where to find them, now. He squares his shoulders and unlocks the front door, skips down the steps with a lightness in his heart that he hasn't felt in ages, and goes straight for the comically overstuffed garbage bag at the road. It doesn't take a lot of effort for him to tear a hole in the side and shovel armfuls of clothes into his backpack.  


    He clutches the paper with the directions to this “safe haven” tightly in his hand and starts down the street. 

* 

    By the good grace of whoever is watching over him, Koushi doesn't get lost along the way. He has to sit down to rest a couple of times and at one point comes to the conclusion that he probably should have brought snacks with him, and of course a strap snaps off one of the shiny pink dress shoes his grandma bought him for his sixth birthday (he doesn't care; he hates those shoes), but sometime when the moon is almost done it's descent in the sky he stops in front of a gigantic, secluded building with a sign above the gate that matches the writing at the top of the paper he's holding. It's very dark, and Koushi is very tired, hungry and miserable, not to mention cold -- he's still in his pyjamas, after all. When he squeezes through the gate and knocks on the door, no one answers, and between that and his dismal mood he just crouches down on the front porch and starts bawling with his face against his knees. After several minutes of this display, a light goes on just inside the house and the door opens a crack.  


    “Oh,” comes a comfortingly soft soprano voice. The door opens further and the voice continues, “Keishin, bring a blanket! And put the kettle on!”  


    Moments later the weight of a thick blanket settles around his shoulders and he looks up into the eyes of a petite boy with unruly dark hair, who smiles at him kindly. “Hey, it's alright, you don't have to cry. Come on inside, I'll take your bag. Are you hungry?”  


    Koushi nods but can't find it in himself to stand up; he's just so wholly exhausted. The boy frowns and reaches out to lift him into his arms instead. Koushi doesn't protest. He isn't sure he can walk any more after the adventure he just had. He pulls the blanket closer, over his eyes and the bruises on his arms, as he's carried into the bright warmth of the strange house. The last thing he notices before falling asleep is the smell of hot chocolate growing stronger. 

* 

    Someone is shuffling papers around near his bed. He doesn't want to get up to see who. He's weary and sore and if anything, would like to just go back to sleep. Koushi sighs and rolls over, but rather than hit a wall he almost plummets straight into the empty space beside the bed, shocking himself awake. “Good morning!” a cheery voice sings behind him. He tenses and pulls himself into a sitting position, fear shooting down from his heart to his toes and unsettling his stomach. A pencil hits the floor and clatters under the bed. “Ohh…” the speaker sounds uncomfortable now, almost pained. But familiar. Like the person who carried him into his new home last night.  


    His feet thud on the hardwood and he spins around to examine the stranger more closely. In turn, he smiles placatingly and removes his too-large glasses, hooking them onto the collar of his shirt. “Hello,” he says, and bows deeply, standing from his chair to do so. Koushi freezes, not sure how to react. “It's nice to meet you. My name is Takeda Ittetsu. I'm a student at this school. Soon to be teacher, though, if all goes well. I take it you're...like us?”  


    Koushi takes a step back and frowns at Takeda. Why does he make it sound bad? Is it always bad to be the way he is? He knew his parents thought it was bad for him to be the way he is, but he thought here at least people would be nice about it.  


    “It's nothing to be ashamed of. We want you to feel at home here, and embrace your differences; you can utilize them positively with some practice, and I've already felt what you can do. Such great things could come from that, and -- oh! You must be hungry! I'm so sorry, let's go downstairs and get you some breakfast, I'm sure I can whip up something. How does french toast sound?”  


    The student rambles on and turns to the door, opening it and motioning for Koushi to leave. He stands and stares, as apprehensive as ever even though the thought of food makes his stomach squeeze painfully. Takeda deflates a bit before approaching him cautiously and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, let's go get some food in your stomach.”  


    His hesitation dissipates instantly. He follows Takeda -- and the feeling of his relief -- all the way down into a spacious kitchen. There are several people lounging around, sitting at the island, leaning against the counter, and a lady with close-cropped blonde hair and lots of makeup sitting on the floor with the unfortunate remains of a microwave scattered around her.  


    “Nice to see you finally decided to join us, Takeda,” huffs one of the boys hunched over a plate of toast on the island. Takeda makes an indignant noise and puts his hands on his hips.  


    “I will have you know I've been awake for several hours now. I've just been keeping an eye on our new arrival.” He nudges Koushi towards the island. He's feeling unsure again, but climbs onto a stool anyway and folds his hands on the countertop politely, careful not to meet anyone's eye.  


    “I know, I know, I'm just teasing. You're very good at sleeping in, y’know.” The plate of buttered toast and some scraps of scrambled egg slides into his view. “Welcome to Ukai’s, kiddo. I'm Ukai. Keishin, not Ikkei. Ikkei’s the headmaster, but I'm just his grandson. What's your name?”  


    “Sugawara Koushi. I'm a boy,” he tells him firmly.  


    Ukai laughs and tousles his hair. “Well then you're gonna have to see a hairdresser, lil buddy. Or Saeko. Hey, Saeko, you wanna get your fingers out of the toaster and fix this guy up with an appointment?”  


    “It's a microwave, Ukai, you used the toaster 10 minutes ago. And he doesn't need an appointment. I'm free all week because one of my only clients insists on growing his hair out.”  


    “Touché.” Ukai nudges the plate closer to Koushi but Takeda appears and swats his hands back, muttering about how he's going to ruin his appetite for the breakfast he's trying to cook. Truthfully, Koushi is famished, but he can't bring himself to concentrate on that when the prospect of finally getting the haircut he wants has been presented to him. “You know I look damn good, though,” he continues, ignoring Takeda’s obvious frustration at his insistence on feeding Koushi everything but what he's making right now.  


    Saeko shrugs and pulls a panel out of the bottom of the microwave, examines it momentarily, then tosses it at the wall. “Kinda makes you look dark and broody. Black doesn't suit you. I could dye it blonde if you want. Touch up the ends, maybe give it some layers. Why don't you bring the kid up to my room later and I'll fix you both up?”  


    “Okay!” Koushi says, bouncing in his seat a bit. A few heads turn to look at him and he shrinks back but continues to grin at the girl who's observing him out of the corner of her eye. “I mean, that'd be really nice. Thank you.”  


    Saeko flashes him a peace sign and returns to her work. “No problem, bud. Just hang around for a while and I've got you covered.”  


    A plate of french toast hits the counter in front of Koushi’s face. Takeda fixes his hair for him before walking around the island to sit beside Ukai. “Here.” He positions his own plate between them and hands him a fork, to which Ukai sighs with relief.  


    “Thank god. I am so fu- flippin hungover right now I could eat a whole loaf of bread.”  


    “Haven't you already?” Takeda laughs when Ukai elbows him in the side, and Koushi feels a peculiar warmth spread through his chest. He likes these two very much, he thinks; they're warm together, emotionally at least, and he marvels at the feeling of being with a best friend that pours off of them as they dig into their breakfast. Happiness is extraordinarily contagious, he's realizing, perhaps even more so than any negative feelings.  


    He's barely halfway through his food when someone bursts through the kitchen doorway right beside Saeko, sliding along the hardwood on his socks until he loses his balance and plummets face-first to the floor behind the island. Saeko snorts.  


    “Saeko! Good morning! Are we still going shopping today? I need new socks because this is the last pair that don't have holes and I think I just ruined that too actually but anyway I was-”  


    Koushi feels his continuous rush of nervousness and excitement fizzle out and then explode into pure curiosity as he spins on his heel and gawks at him. There's a little bit of blood trickling onto his eyebrow from a small gash in his forehead that he appears to either not notice or not care about. Koushi is having difficulty determining which it is.  


    “Oh, wow,” the strange, bleeding, puppy-like kid says softly. Koushi doesn't know what to expect, but it definitely isn't for him to hoist him into the air by his armpits and hold him up to the light to examine him.  


    “Um,” Koushi squeaks, too far off the floor and too close in proximity to this boy for comfort. He has literally no clue how to react to his situation, so he opts to go limp and let what happens happen, but a sliver of fear pulses in the back of his consciousness.  


    Blood boy nods approvingly. “Damn. That's awesome. What's the deal, Keishin?”  


    “The deal is none of anyone's business, Tsukishima. You get to know what you know about people, you nosy brat, no more.” Finished with his second helping of breakfast (maybe third or fourth, Koushi can't be sure), Ukai stands and stretches. “If you're gonna go into town, take Takeda with you. You're still little.”  


    Tsukishima and Saeko both look so deeply offended by this that Koushi is surprised Ukai’s head doesn't explode, but Takeda beats both of them to an outburst.  


    “I am not a babysitter. You can escort them as easily as I can! Why do you always volunteer me for stuff like this?” he huffs off with the dirty dishes to send them clattering into a sink full of soapy water.  


    Saeko looks slightly less miffed and notably more amused by his mounting displeasure. Similarly, Ukai stifles a snicker behind his hand at the way Takeda raises his shoulders and wrinkles his nose. “Relax, I’m just saying that ‘cause you’re the actual adult here. I mean, Manabu could instead but he’s not that good with--”  


    Before he can finish, Manabu abandons his breakfast and flees the room, the tie on his bathrobe coming loose as he rounds the corner and disappears altogether.  


    “...kids,” Ukai squeaks, and Takeda heaves a hopeless sigh.  


    “If we’re going,” he says to Saeko and Tsukishima, “I don’t want you causing trouble. I always have to deal with the damage you do.”  


    “You are _such_ an old man, Takeda,” Saeko snorts, and Ukai has to turn around completely so Takeda can’t see him laughing.  


    Beyond nettled, Takeda throws his arms up into the air and deflates. “I’m _eighteen_. You’re all awful. All of you.”

 * 

    In the end, Takeda does take Saeko and Akiteru (as he requests Koushi call him, rather than his family name) to town to shop. Koushi is left with Ukai, who, despite Koushi’s earlier reservations about him being a strange, aggressive-looking man, is nothing short of _amazing_ and extraordinarily kind. Koushi finds himself introduced to a whole new realm of activities he’s never even known existed. Immediately, Ukai becomes a big brother in his eyes, toting him around on his shoulders for the remainder of the morning to show him around the school. They take a moment to pop into his grandfather’s office and greet him; he shakes Koushi’s hand and smiles warmly, telling him how pleased he is with their new arrival. On the way out, Ukai the younger comments on how he’s usually much grouchier than that, and Koushi’s excitement must be rubbing off on him. Koushi grins and wraps his arms tighter around Ukai’s forehead.  


    “Nah, he was happy.”  


    “Really now? And you could tell?”  


    “Mm-hm,” he giggles, kicking his bare feet against Ukai’s chest -- he winces, but doesn’t complain. “He likes when you come to see him. And he’s cure...um, curr...he’s wondering about me. But mostly he likes to see you ‘cause you’re his grandson.”  


    “Good to know,” Ukai murmurs slyly. It's good to know the old man at least enjoys his company. “And I think the word you were looking for was ‘curious’.”  


    “Curious….yeah.”  


    Ukai laughs and grabs onto Koushi’s legs as he climbs the stairs so he won't fall off. “It means to wonder about something and want to know more about it. Takeda could probably give you a better definition. But you probably wouldn't understand. He forgets that not everybody knows as many words as he does, sometimes.”  


    Koushi shakes his head, chin rubbing against the top of Ukai’s hair and leaving it frizzy. “No, that's right. That's how he felt.”  


    Something bright and affectionate bursts to life around them and Koushi laughs, making confusion dilute the feeling. “Well, if you’re up for it,” Ukai tries to hide how pleased he is by continuing the conversation, “we can go outside and play baseball while we wait for Takeda to come back.”  


    “Baseball?” He knows what baseball _is_ , in a sense -- he’s heard his dad talk about ‘baseball games’ with his mom and occasionally over the phone with people Koushi has never met, and probably never will. He’s sure he’s caught a glimpse of it on the television at some point, but then again there are so many sports dad watches and he hasn’t been allowed to watch them (or any television at all) since...well, since the day he made his dad the angriest he’s ever been. As they reach the next floor, he loosens his grip on Ukai’s head and pouts. His insides hurt.  


    “Hey, woah, what’s wrong? If you don’t like baseball we can do something else, sorry.” It sounds like Ukai is going to cry; Koushi didn’t mean to upset him, too.  


    “Can you teach me how to play?” he sniffles.  


    “Yeah,” Ukai says softly, turning into a spacious room at the end of the hall. For someone who's always been required to have a clean room like Koushi, he quite nearly yells at the sight of the disaster zone that is Ukai Keishin’s bedroom. He picks his way across the floor and sets Koushi on the bed, half of which is already occupied by a mountain of dirty laundry. “Of course I can. Just wait here a sec while I find gloves.”  


    Ukai’s room is incredible in Koushi’s eyes, once he ignores the mess and the faint smell of old pizza. Or is it cabbage? Ramen, maybe? Perhaps it's best he doesn't know. But even if it does stink and looks like a hurricane or six blew through it, it appeals deeply to Koushi. There are posters covering most of the walls, sports teams and bands and cartoons that he's never even seen, and he has a computer to himself by the looks of it. The corner that the computer desk occupies is a mess of takeout containers, gym bags, sports equipment, and enough socks that if he washed them Akiteru wouldn't need to go out and get more. Ukai topples the chair in his attempt to pry a baseball glove out from under the desk, where it's apparently jammed partially under a drawer.  


    “This one's mine,” he tells Koushi, putting it on to show him. “I have a smaller one from when I was about ten in here somewhere. Just gimme a sec.”  


    He starts pulling the drawers out of the desk and dumping them out on the floor. As he sifts through the contents of the second last one, he whoops triumphantly and tosses a black leather baseball glove in Koushi’s direction. “There's that -- make sure it fits right -- and I'll get a ball and bat.”  


    Apparently the bottom drawer of his dresser is entirely dedicated to sports equipment. Koushi clambers off the bed to look inside while Ukai digs through it, eventually producing a small plastic ball and bat set, then a much larger wooden bat. “Alright, kid,” he says, giving him the plastic bat and grinning down at him. “Off we go.”

* 

    They enlist Manabu, Shimada, and Takinoue’s help with their game. For a good while, they focus on teaching Koushi how to bat, then Ukai runs through the rules one thing at a time as they start a real game. He runs alongside Koushi from home plate (a bench on the far side of the fountain) to first base (a cluster of circular hedges), explaining that if Shimada touches the base or Koushi with the ball before he can reach it, it usually means he's out. Ukai promises to tell him whether he's out or safe to avoid confusion.  


    Baseball is complicated. They play a few innings, two of which Ukai puts Koushi on third base and runs the ball over to him rather than tossing it, and a third in which he only take a few paces closer before throwing it to him. He doesn't do too bad catching it, if he does say so himself. It's amazing to bask in this feeling of unadulterated glee coming from all of Ukai’s friends, and when Takeda returns the feeling from Ukai himself spikes.  


    He's swept away to a humongous washroom on the third floor, where Saeko gives him the haircut he's been wanting for months, nearly dozing off in the chair (much to her amusement). Ukai talks to him to keep him awake, then trades places with him while Saeko dyes and styles his hair. Her own is swept up in a small mohawk, heavily gelled, and she tells them that she plans to grow it out, at which Ukai scoffs and calls her a hypocrite, and Koushi has no idea what that means, but their conversation is comfortable and full of laughter; Koushi giggles the whole time he’s in there.  


    He takes a very, very long nap that afternoon, waking up only because Takeda insists he eat something for dinner. Which is lovely and lively and tremendously unusual but he enjoys every moment of it, from Saeko hitting Akiteru in the forehead with a piece of broccoli to Ukai Sr. making an appearance and, towards the end of their meal, presenting them with a large bowl of amanatto.  


    It's amazing here, with all these people who are accepting of him, and he feels comfortable and almost happy settling into bed that night, Takeda leaving a glass of water on his nightstand after offering to read him a story, which Koushi refuses. He hasn't had a bedtime story since he was four. He certainly doesn't need one now.  


    “Goodnight,” he says softly to Takeda’s retreating back. “Thank you.”  


    “Goodnight, Koushi. Sweet dreams. If you need anything, my room is the first on the right at the top of the stairs.”  


    Koushi nods and Takeda closes the door, leaving him on his own in his new room. He doesn't take time to think about it; despite the fact that he slept through most of the afternoon, he's utterly exhausted, and in the morning he won't remember a lull between the moment he closed his eyes and the moment he fell asleep.


	2. Shine A Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Settling into life with...whatever you call this ragtag group of nerds sharing a mansion-school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Absolutely you should go listen to Shine A Light by BANNERS. All the chapter titles are gonna be names of songs btw, either because the meaning of the song suits the content or because the title does. And I will always recommend you listen to them because I live in firm belief that my music taste is the BEST.

 

* * *

 

          Koushi is halfway through his rice when Akiteru and Saeko come screaming into the kitchen. Literally. One of them is laughing maniacally and the other is yelling insults and by the time they’ve broken three cups in their frantic scuffle to _sit down_  Koushi still can’t tell who is doing what. Is there such a thing as uninterrupted meals in this house?

            Probably not.

            He follows Takeda’s example and calmly continues eating his breakfast while Shimada scolds them for damaging school property, which the two younger students respond to by pointing fingers and blaming each other for everything. “She tripped me on the stairs! I could have died!”

            “ _He_  challenged me to a race and then _jammed the door and ran_! I was trying to make it a fair fight again!”

            “Oh my god, how old are you, twelve? Clean up that glass, please, and let us eat in peace for once.” Shimada is rubbing his temples like he already has a headache this early in the morning. Koushi silently chews on a piece of tamagoyaki while Saeko and Akiteru wilt and start whining about how, “That’s dangerous” and, “No, we’re fifteen.”

            Ukai gets them a broom and dustpan, returns to his breakfast and leaves them to their devices. As far as Koushi can feel, they aren’t really that upset with this situation. It must be a regular occurrence. He wonders how often Ukai Sr. has to buy new dishes.

            Saeko tries to sneak Koushi out with her after breakfast --even though Takeda specifically said he wanted to talk to him when they were finished eating --using Akiteru as a decoy. They don’t get far, of course, because Takeda isn’t as easily distracted as they’d hoped, but Koushi is starting to understand the feeling of having older siblings and he _loves_  it. They bicker a little bit with Takeda, snickering while they rile him up (Koushi can tell he isn’t really angry; he enjoys their antics almost as much as they do), and he continues to pretend he’s a figure of authority despite an age difference of less than three years.

            He likes Saeko and Akiteru, for being just like he always expected teenagers to be, and he likes Takeda for acting like a very tiny, gentle big brother to all of them. His heart feels warm. Several of the people in the room turn to stare at him.

           Takeda clears his throat. “Back to what I was trying to do,” he says, sounding suddenly significantly more cheerful, “Koushi, I'd like to speak with you in the upstairs lounge, if that's alright with you?”

           Koushi puts on his best serious adult face and nods. “Okay.”

           “Tsukishima, you as well.”

           Without asking, Akiteru lifts Koushi off the ground and settles him on his hip like a toddler. Koushi is noticing a trend here. He pouts and accepts his fate, while Akiteru gives an exaggerated salute and barks, “Aye, aye, captain!”

           In the end, Koushi gets a piggyback ride up the stairs, so he doesn't complain about being tossed around like a doll by the oblivious teenager. He actually cheers when they reach the top and asks him to run up and down the hall a few times. Out of breath but no less enthusiastic for it, Akiteru complies, and by the time they finally collapse on the floor beside a kotatsu, across from where Takeda waits patiently, he's red in the face and gasping for air. Or maybe he's laughing. Takeda hums in amusement.

           “Koushi,” he starts, folding his hands over a stack of papers on the table, “do you know why you came here?”

           Finding that's he's a bit out of breath himself, he takes a moment to answer. “Because I'm...weird?” he tries, but he doesn't like applying the term to himself; he grimaces.

           “Different might be a better word,” Takeda offers. “And...what is it that makes you different?”

           Thinking about it makes his stomach feel bad. He lowers his gaze to the table. “I'm supposed to be a girl.”

            “Oh.” Takeda makes a noise somewhere between being a gasp and a laugh. “Well, that certainly is different.”

            Koushi looks to Akiteru to gauge his reaction and finds that he has stars shining in his eyes, gaping down at him. “Takeda!”

            “Yes, I know.” He really is laughing now, quietly, and attempting to hide it.

            “ _Takeda_!” Akiteru yells, almost jumping to his feet. Not once does he stop looking at Koushi, who is all kinds of confused.

            Composing himself, Takeda lays his hands on the table again. “Calm down. We can get into that later. Koushi?”

            Engrossed as he is in the explosive cloud of Akiteru’s excitement ( _a positive reaction_ , something entirely new to him), it takes him a minute to bring his attention back to Takeda. “I...uh, yeah?”

            “While you being a boy is certainly something special, I want you to know that you’re another kind of special, too. I don’t know everything, not yet; that’s why Akiteru is here, because he understands you better than I do. Koushi, do you know what a mutant is?”

            Ugh, _yes_. His dad hates mutants. Mom doesn’t like them either, as far as he could tell. She didn’t toss around the words “disgusting” and “abomination” as freely as dad did when the topic came up on the radio or over dinner, but she always got a horrible curling in her gut and a flood of dislike so strong that Koushi often had trouble distinguishing his own emotions from hers in those situations. He can feel it now -- the echo of her discomfort in his own stomach -- and squints at the tabletop, nodding unenthusiastically.

            “Did you know that you are a mutant?” Takeda asks the question like he’s handling a bomb. He’s barely loud enough for Koushi to hear him, and his voice is several pitches higher than usual.

            Koushi stares, eyes bugging out and mouth a lopsided ‘o’. But… _that’s_  what his parents had been arguing about the other night. He’d been wondering what the word “mutant” had been doing in their conversation, when all dad was ever mad about lately was losing his daughter.

           “Is that bad?” he asks, starting to cry anyway, even though Akiteru’s joy nearly overwhelms his apprehension. He ends up laughing a little bit as tears fall down his face, his brain confused about what it should be feeling, and the joy beside him fluctuates, decrescendos.

           “It's great!” Takeda says with exaggerated vigor, reaching across the table to take Koushi’s hands. “It's amazing. You have an incredible gift, certainly not something to be upset over.”

           “A gift?” He scrubs at his cheeks with his knuckles and grabs Takeda’s hands again before he can pull them back. A gift like what? Like those godawful pink shoes? Please, not more stuff like that, he begs the universe.

           Nodding eagerly, Takeda moves around the table to sit beside him, not once letting go. “Yes! The gift you have is superpowers.”

           Koushi thinks back to poring over comic books with his cousin when they shared a room last time he visited his aunt and uncle. “Superpowers? Like, eye lasers?”

           “Well...Yes and no.” At Takeda’s hesitation, Akiteru snorts quietly. “Hush, you,” he hisses, glaring over Koushi’s head. “See, everyone is different. All the people here have a different gift. The Headmaster can read people's thoughts, and talk to them in their heads. Tsukishima can sense when a person has a power, and what that power is. Do you understand?”

           “I...think so. But, what do I have?”

           “You have the power of emotions. Er, feelings. You can make people feel whatever you want them to. Happy, sad, confused. Is that right, Tsukishima?”

           Akiteru sprawls gracelessly across the kotatsu, bending forward and around to look Koushi in the eye. “Yeah! And you can tell what people are feeling, too! Like, what do I feel right now?”

           Vibrant, warm, tingly in his hands and feet. His heart is beating fast and his head feels light and sunny, but the tingle is there as well. “Excited,” Koushi concludes proudly.

           “See? That's a superpower. No one else in the world can do that same thing.”

           “Really?” He'd thought everyone could, honestly. It seemed like such a normal thing to him, always knowing, feeling everything other people did, the crushing feeling of being in a crowd where there was _so much_  sensation.

           “Really,” Akiteru says, sliding back to sit on his cushion; Koushi turns to face him. “That's why we have this school. So people like us can learn to use our powers the right way. And also, like, math and literature, but those suck.” He sticks out his tongue at the idea of actual schoolwork.

           “Excuse you, literature is awesome!”

           “Not everyone lives and breathes Kakuta novels, Take-san,” he retorts, earning a strangled gasp from Takeda.

           “You...you are just awful. I miss being an only child.”

           “And I miss not having an insufferable big brother telling me what to do all the time.” Akiteru blows a raspberry at him, absolutely howling with laughter inside. “Come, child, we mustn't let Takeda’s weird book obsession rub off on you.” He stands and pulls Koushi up with him, takes him by the hand as he flees the room, and Takeda comes running after them, yelling something about needing to talk to them longer. He really doesn't think Takeda is as unbearable as Akiteru and Saeko seem to think he is. He's very mature, honestly, and having spent several years hearing about how he's “so mature for your age”, he doesn't mind the idea of spending time with him. Akiteru, mischievous as he is, can't stand it.

           In the first floor living room, they pass Saeko flipping through an exceptionally thick textbook, gnawing silently on a pen. “Code Glasses!” Akiteru screams as they tear past, Koushi barely managing to keep up on his significantly shorter legs. Saeko’s pen lands somewhere behind the couch; she's up and with Akiteru instantly, sprinting alongside them.

           “What did you do this time?”

           “Told him he has a book addiction and called him insufferable.”

           “Ohh. I did that last week! How unoriginal.” Seeing that Koushi is falling behind, she grabs him and tosses him over her shoulder like a towel. Before he can even recover, they're outside, crossing the back garden towards the woods.

           Koushi laughs uproariously as he's jostled around with the momentum of Saeko running. She comes to a halt a few metres into the trees, letting him down and putting her hands on her knees while she catches her breath.

           “You,” Akiteru says, also panting, and he kneels before Koushi to poke him right on the nose, “are my new favourite person.”

           Saeko smacks him gently on the back of the head. “Rude!”

           “What?!”

           “I thought I was your favourite!”

           “Nah, you're like, eighth, maybe ninth. I like Shimada and Takeda wayyy more.” Akiteru snickers and ducks before she can whack him again, kicking her legs out from under her.

           “Why are we running away from Takeda?” Koushi finally finds the breath to ask; he flops back against a tree, too tired from his short dash to keep himself upright.

           “I dunno. Cause it makes him mad, I guess?” Saeko replies from where she's now facedown on the forest floor, giving no indication that she's going to even try to get up. “We do it to everyone.”

           “Yeah, like, twice a week.”

           “But not Ukai and Nekomata. They're in charge. Don't run away from them if you don't want a detention. Or...a timeout?” She rolls over to stare at the school through the spaces between the trees. “I couldn't pull that kind of stuff at home, to be honest. It's so nice here, you'll see. Everyone is super cool.”

           Akiteru lays down beside her, resting the back of his head on her stomach. Koushi stays where he is, pulling his knees up to his chest. “I had a little brother before I came here, y’know,” he says, gaze set on the sky. “Younger than you. It was almost his fifth birthday when I left.”

           Koushi remembers his own fifth birthday with nothing resembling fondness; grandma forcing him into the outfit she bought him while he kicked and screamed, the pink cake, the...clothes and dolls and lip gloss. He didn't mind the dolls, honestly, but he’d asked for an RC car and a Lego set and had been told no, that wasn't something for girls. Well, he didn't think dresses were for boys, and then he _told them_. He realizes now that was a mistake. “What was his name?” he asks, rubbing at his head fervently to make his bad thoughts _go away_.

           “Kei,” Akiteru murmurs. “He was my best friend. He really looked up to me, I think. And he has no idea I left. He knew all along I was a boy. He was the only one who knew, and when I told our parents, they gave me one hour to leave. I don’t know what they told him.”

           The absolute adoration Akiteru feels for his baby brother is like warm honey. Koushi leans forward to the source, basking in the affection between siblings. The pain of loss and rejection are a punch in the gut by comparison, and it hits Koushi in much the same manner.

           Saeko’s fingers comb through Akiteru’s hair; she starts humming a lullaby Koushi vaguely remembers the words to, and Akiteru closes his eyes and listens. “Me, too,” she says to Koushi, after a few minutes. “I had a little brother, too. I haven't seen him since I left, either.”

           Negativity, like a thick fog, has settled around them. Koushi has to take a minute to breathe, trying to push away the bitterness that's built up around them, but he sheds a few tears anyway.

           “Aww, no, don't cry, bud.” Akiteru rolls over to grab Koushi’s hands and pull him into a hug. When he lays back down, Koushi still clutched to his chest, Saeko stretches to give them both a kiss on the forehead.

           “Now, we've got you,” she tells him, and he can't help but mirror her grin.

           “You still miss them, though, right?” he asks, as seriously as he can manage.

           “I'll never stop missing him,” they say in unison. They stare at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter, in spite of the unmistakable stain of sadness on their moods.

 

*

 

           “I'm seven!” Koushi yells, tearing down the hall. It's barely 5 am, most of the building is engulfed in darkness, but he doesn't falter on his way up the steps and straight to Takeda’s bedroom door. He's confident in his memory of the layout of the school by now: exactly how many steps to the stairwell from his door, the width of the stairs, the distance between the top of the stairwell and Takeda’s room.  

           He bangs his fist against the door until it slides open, revealing Takeda shirtless and struggling to hook his glasses over his ears. “Good morning,” he grumbles, yawning.

           “I'm seven!” Koushi cries again.

           Takeda laughs and retreats into his room to find a shirt. Koushi follows and sits on the bed. “Indeed you are. What would you like to do for your birthday?”

           Oh, dear; he hadn't thought about that. He'd just been excited to be a whole year older. “Uh.”

           “Take your time. You have all morning to think of something. For now, I have a present for you.” He finishes making himself more presentable and lifts Koushi with an arm under his thighs to hold him against his hip, then opens the drawer of his nightstand and removes a stack of papers. “Light?”

           Koushi pulls the string on the lamp, filling the room around them with light. He leans back and rests his cheek against Takeda’s shoulder, feeling a concentrated surge of nervous excitement. They've been working on his control of his powers, so he has no trouble at all concealing his own feelings, but he's yet unable to prevent himself from being aware of the emotions of everyone around him.

           His heart picks up speed alongside Takeda’s. “What is it?”

           “Read it.” Takeda’s been encouraging him to read more, telling him to practise using everything from cereal boxes to graphic novels to the literal dictionary, but he honestly doesn't think now is the time. He's too excited. Or Takeda is too excited. He can't tell anymore.

           “Uh,” he says again, squinting down at a small card on the top of the pile. The first word is gigantic, and despite his recent improvements in reading comprehension there is simply no way he can process that. The other two, however, are easy. “Something...birth?”

           Takeda hums. “Certificate of birth. Everyone get one when they're born. It shows everyone when your birthday is, and what your name is, and whether you're a boy or a girl.”

           Well, he certainly doesn't want one of those. If he was a girl when he was born, he'd rather not have a card to show everyone that.

           “Here,” Takeda continues, bringing the card closer and pointing to one of the lines, “it says ‘male’. That means that anyone who sees this will know that you're a boy.”

           “Oh,” Koushi whispers. The excitement is definitely his own. “How did you do that?”

           “Remember after your first week here, I asked what your old address was? I went there and asked for all the important things that belong to you. There are government...well, there are places where you can change what important things like these say.” He shuffles the papers around and places the card on the nightstand. “I took everything there and changed it all so you'll be a boy.”

           “What are these?” Koushi lifts the corner of the first page, but there are way too many words for him to even bother reading them.

           “Those are adoption forms,” Takeda explains, soft and unsure. His heart is thrumming again. “So, if you'd like, I can finish filling them out, and you can be my son. Officially. But only if you want to.”

           Slowly, he leans back to look Takeda in the eye while he gapes at him. “Oh, um, I…” he would _love_  to be adopted by him. Unfortunately he's overwhelmed in the moment, and after uselessly flapping his hands and trying at least six times to find the right say to thank him, he bursts into tears and surges forward to hug him, nodding furiously all the while.

           Laughing through tears, Takeda hugs him back and shuffles to the bed to sit down until they've cried it out.

           It's a wonderful start to the day.

           They make breakfast together, the smell of which soon draws several other people into the kitchen, some of whom offer a helping hand. By the time all the rice, eggs, and fish are set out on the island, even the teenagers have dragged themselves downstairs and found places to sit.

           “6:30 AM. That's a record,” Nekomata comments jovially at the yawning, disgruntled duo.

           “I'm a growing girl. I need my sleep,” Saeko grumbles, sliding a bowl of rice to Akiteru. He nearly falls face-first into it, but Saeko punches him in the shoulder and he jolts awake.

           “It's Takeda’s fault for cooking so early.”

           “If all it takes to wake you up is the smell of breakfast wafting up the stairs, I'll start cooking at four in the morning tomorrow.”

           Saeko blows a raspberry at him and he turns a deadly look on her. “You wouldn't dare,” she growls.

           “Try me,” he retorts, picking up his chopsticks and making a cutting motion across his throat before breaking them apart.

           Koushi, yawning as well, nibbles on a bit of fish and observes, until Ukai Sr. enters the room and sets himself a place. “Happy birthday,” he offers, nodding in Koushi’s direction. “Seven is a lucky number.”

            Akiteru drops his chopsticks and knocks over his chair in his haste to stand up and exclaim, “Oh my god, I forgot! Happy birthday, little dude!”

             A chorus of “happy birthday”s accompanies his outburst, and Koushi swells with pride under the positive attention. “Thank you!” he replies, bowing as well as he is able to while sitting down.

           When everyone has settled down again, Akiteru leans across the island. “What do you want for your birthday?” he asks under his breath.

           “I dunno,” Koushi whispers back. “New shoes, maybe?” He's quickly outgrowing the pair Ukai the younger bought him as a welcoming gift.

           Akiteru salutes cheerily. “You got it.”

           “Guess what Takeda got me?” Koushi’s gaze shifts to the man in question, who is deeply engrossed in a conversation with Nekomata.

           “Books?”

           “No,” Koushi giggles. “He's gonna adopt me!”

           “What?!” Saeko hisses, scrambling to catch the fried octopus she dropped. “We get adopted by Captain Hardass himself and he gets Mom Friend? How is that even fair?”

           “What's hardass?” Koushi asks, louder than he intended, and at the other end of the counter Ukai Sr. snorts loudly. Saeko and Akiteru whip their heads around to stare at him, horrorstruck.

           “Don't say stuff like that near him!” Akiteru whimpers, pushing Saeko so hard she almost falls off her stool.

           “I don't have to _say_  anything, he can hear everything I think! Oh my god, don't think about gross things, don't think about gross things,” she starts chanting under her breath.

           “I'm confused,” Koushi says, and Akiteru pats him on the head.

            “I know. I can feel it.”

           “Oops!” he starts pushing inwards against his mind the way the Headmaster showed him, covering his confusion so no one else has to feel it.

           Shortly after breakfast ends and everyone disappears upstairs or outside, free until tomorrow from working or learning, the telephone mounted on the kitchen wall rings. Koushi raises an eyebrow at it. It hasn't rung at all in the few weeks he's been here. He almost hadn't noticed it, silent as it was. Ukai Jr. stares, too, until Takeda comes tearing around the corner and pulls the cord hard enough that the phone flies into his hands.

           “Hello?” he pants after fumbling with it momentarily. “Er….yes...we can guarantee...oh, dear, okay, we'll be there shortly.”

           He spends a few moments glaring at the receiver before hanging up, then rounds on Ukai. He still hasn't moved, hands limp at his sides and dripping soapy water all over his slippers. “We have a potential. And I mean it when I say that. This lady thought her kid was a witch, and then a demon, and now she wants us to come see. So for all we know we're dealing with a very rambunctious kid with no powers.”

           “So the usual drill,” Ukai says, grinning broadly.

           “Should we bring Akiteru?”

           “No, he's just a baby.”

           “You're one to talk. I'll get the Headmaster, you get something other than pyjamas to wear.” Takeda, already fully dressed for the day (like a responsible adult), stomps away up the stairs, leaving Ukai grimacing after him.

           “How rude. I'm no more of a baby than he is.”

           Koushi holds out a tea towel for him to wipe his hands on. “Did you find someone else like us?”

        “Maybe.” Ukai drops the towel on his head when he's done with it, then pulls him into a hug. “Happy birthday. We'll be back soon.”

           “Wait!” he cries, hooking his arms around Ukai’s leg as he tries to step away. “Can I have a birthday ride up the stairs?”  

           “‘Course. Hop on.” Ukai straightens out his leg and Koushi clambers on, arms around his knee, legs around his ankle, and sits on his foot.

           He runs three circles around the kitchen before attempting to climb the stairs. It's a lot more effort than he'd anticipated, apparently, because at the top he needs to sit down for a minute. “Geez, kid, are you full of bricks?” He messes up Koushi’s hair and smirks. “Looks like you're stuck with the terrible teenagers for the morning. I am so sorry.”

           “Aren't you a teenager, too?”

           “Ah, technicalities,” Ukai hums, waving his hand absently. “See you later.”

           Koushi pulls him into another embrace and gets a kiss on the crown of his head in return. “Have fun!”

           Waving over his shoulder as he plods off toward his room, Ukai snorts. “You have no idea.”

           All that's left to do is find Saeko and Akiteru, which won't be hard. There's a suspicious thumping and giggling coming from Saeko’s room. He knocks loudly on the wooden edge of the door.

           After a moment's silence, to voices say, “Enter,” completely in sync. He slides the door open to see the two teenagers sitting on the bed in the sea of garbage.

          “What's up, dude?”

           “What are you doing?” Koushi counters.

           “Looking at colleges,” Saeko tells him, and Akiteru throws a sparkly green rubber ball at her head. It bounces off neatly and he catches it.

           “Trying to stop her from being a nerd.”

           “Being a nerd will get you places, Aki.” She catches the ball this time, before it can make contact with her forehead, and tosses it in his face. “Nothing wrong with that.”

           “Ugh, you sound like Takeda.”

           “No, Takeda sounds like, ‘Oh, I love poetry, I love life, I love Keishin. I could wax poetic about his ass for decades,’” she says in an irritatingly high-pitched voice, then puts a hand to her mouth and makes several farting sounds, steadily increasing in volume.

            “He doesn’t actually say that,” Akiteru snickers.

            “He thinks it. It’s obvious.”

            “You said ‘ass’ again,” Koushi interrupts (inadvertently; in his defense, he’d been too busy thinking about Saeko’s awful linguistic habits to notice they were even talking). He gasps and claps both hands over his mouth. “ _I_  said ‘ass’! Again!”

            “Oh, hun-bun,” Saeko says softly after a moment of silence. “It’s okay to swear.”

            Not according to every adult ever, it isn’t. “You’re not supposed to,” he defends.

            “Says grown-ups, right? They also say to eat all your vegetables. Do you always do that?” Akiteru grins, pulling Koushi forward and onto his lap. He shakes his head,

            “Excellent point, my fine fiendish friend,” Saeko exclaims, and they high-five over Koushi’s head. “Seriously, it’s fine to swear once in awhile. The earth won’t explode. It’s a good way to express really big feelings, y’know? Like when you feel super angry and you wanna scream and cry, just say ‘fuck!’”

             This time, Koushi gasps so hard he feels momentarily light-headed, and Saeko collapses in a fit of laughter.

            “Just try it. One time. To see how it feels.”

            There aren’t any adults around, so it’s not like he’ll get in trouble. But he isn’t sure he wants to risk it. Mom always says grown-ups have ears everywhere, whatever that meant, and if he says something really bad they’ll _know_. Akiteru is not helping at all, nodding vigorously and smiling so hard he looks like he’s going to burst. “Fuck,” Koushi whispers, squeezing his eyes shut. Nothing happens. The world stays calm; no explosions, no calamities, no parents bursting into the room to scold him. He giggles. “Fuck!”

            “Alright!” Akiteru hollers, and now it’s Koushi’s turn to high-five him, so hard his palm turns red and tingly.

            “Now just remember to try not to say it in front of anyone but us.”

            “And maybe Ukai. Keishin, not Ikkei.”

            “Am I allowed to keep reading now?” Not waiting for an answer, she starts flipping pages on one of the several books strewn across the bed.

            Akiteru stands and takes Koushi with him. “Well, if she’s gonna be boring, I guess that means it’s time.”

            “Time for what?” He’s not sure he wants to know, actually. Akiteru has his hands around his ankles.

            “Time for birthday shakes!”

            “...Birthday wha--?” He does not finish that sentence, preoccupied with the fact that he’s suddenly hanging upside-down, arms dangling over (under?) his head so his fingers almost brush the drink can full of green-grey fuzz and horribly stained shirt below him.

            “Birthday shakes!” Akiteru repeats, and starts shaking him lightly back and forth. Koushi squeals and flails his arms at Akiteru’s knees, put off by the movement. “How many birthday shakes do you get? One for each year, so...two?”

            “No!” He smacks Akiteru’s stomach and can’t hold back the laughter bubbling in his chest. That might be puke, actually. People were not meant to hang upside-down.

            “Forty?”

            “ _No_!”

            “A hundred?”

            “Seven!” Koushi shrieks, and then he’s spinning.

            “Ah, yes. Seven, of course! Saeko, fair lady, help us count this old man’s birthday shakes!” Akiteru booms, as he turns them so Koushi is facing Saeko, who looks caught between exasperation and amusement.

            “Of course, fair lad,” she bows her head slightly and smiles. “Ready?”

            “Ready!” Koushi yells, heart humming with excitement.

            “One!” they say together, and Akiteru sweeps in arms up and down in one huge motion that makes Koushi’s stomach feel like someone has stepped on it. He’s positively screaming with laughter, swinging his arms as they count; “Two! Three! Four! Five!”

            “Six!” Saeko cheers, but her voice is no longer accompanied by Akiteru’s. Koushi, too, has fallen silent and still.

            Awful. He feels awful. His legs start shaking, and after he’s lowered to the ground he has to lean on Akiteru’s leg for support as he tries to regain his balance. His stomach churns, not from being jostled around like that, but because he’s terrified and confused and -- he bursts into tears without understanding why, makes eye contact with Akiteru, and they take off running.

            “What? What did I miss? _What_?” Saeko yells after them as they break one of the rice paper panels on her door in their haste to get downstairs and find out what the hell is going on.

             At the top of the stairwell to the foyer, Akiteru tucks Koushi under his arm like a football, hops onto the banister, and slides all the way down. There’s a girl with Takeda, probably around Koushi’s age, sitting on the floor with her head in her hands. All the bad things he’s feeling come from her.

            He takes a few deep breaths, fighting the tide of _awful_  pouring off her, and thinks of happy things. Takeda is adopting him. Takeda is going to be his dad. Saeko and Akiteru love him. He draws on the love he feels toward them, amplifies it, and runs to hug the girl, forcing all the happiness he can make himself feel over her.

            Within seconds, she stops crying and hugs him back, and after a minute or so none of the sadness or fear she felt earlier is left. She lets go so she can wipe her tears away. “Hi, I’m Suga…” he clears his throat, still not recovered from the surge of emotion she’d brought with her, “Sugawara Koushi.”

            He holds out a hand and she takes it. “Suga…” she says thoughtfully, then offers a miniscule smile. “I’m Shimizu Kiyoko.”

            “You can just call me Suga, yeah!” Still holding tight to her hand, he helps Kiyoko to her feet. “You’re really gonna like it here,” he adds more quietly, and looks up to see Takeda grinning proudly down at him.

            

           


	3. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takeda is Most Important Dad and I keep throwing new characters at you (I won't stop until they're ALL at the school but also some of them might just suddenly be there bc can you i m a g i n e all those intros lmao)

         

* * *

 

 

          Summer goes by in novella chapters and ice cream. Koushi spends more time lying in the grass of the courtyard with a popsicle in his hand than he does inside with the video game consoles Ukai is so enamored with. Akiteru discovers he's allergic to cattails when he picks an armful for Saeko and breaks out in hives. Kiyoko follows a butterfly into the woods and gets lost for an entire twenty minutes. She doesn't cry. She laughs and explains quietly to Koushi that she hadn't even noticed how far she'd gone.  
          All the while, Koushi grows. He moves up yet another shoe size, eats twice as much as Takeda most days, and needs new pants by mid-August. His vocabulary and reading comprehension grow at an almost equivalent rate, with all the exciting new books Takeda keeps offering him. Occasionally he leaves them inside in favour of sitting by the fountain with the new DS Ukai Sr. gave him for his birthday. Usually he lets Kiyoko use it.  
           “You gotta read this when I'm done. This one's my new favourite.”  
           “You said that yesterday about a different book,” she replies without looking up from her game.  
            Koushi cranes his neck to see her progress. “That was before I read _this_. It's way more interesting. It's all about Buddha's lives on Earth but it's told by a painter who's using all the stories to make a new painting.”  
            “Do you know how to get through this dungeon?” Kiyoko sighs, bringing the game even closer to her face.  
            “I haven't gotten that far. Do you want the other half of this popsicle?” It's the fifth one he's eaten today. Someone should really put a padlock on the freezer before he makes himself sick, but nobody knows he's been taking this many.  
            Kiyoko takes it, puts it in her mouth, and ignores it entirely in favour of playing Pokémon. It starts dripping red onto her lap after a moment. Koushi returns to his book.  
           “I'll read the book you were reading yesterday, then that one. I liked the dog you told me about,” she says a few minutes later, around a mouthful of steadily melting popsicle.  
            “This one has a cat,” Koushi offers, smiling hopefully up at her. “And little poems in every chapter.”  
            “I'll read both, don't worry. I'm not as good as you are, is all.”  
            As it turns out, Kiyoko needs glasses before she can read any of the books Koushi lends her. She looks like a miniature version of Takeda, black hair and pale skin and spectacles sliding off her face while she chases Koushi around the fountain and tackles him into the water. He teases her about it; she retorts with, “I thought you _looooved_ him.”  
            Takeda is in university now. He spends most of his time out of the house, and Koushi has noticed he's conflicted between thoroughly enjoying his classes and feeling awful about always leaving the kids he's supposed to be raising behind. No matter, though. Between all the other teachers and students at the school, Koushi is well cared for.  
            Takeda acquires adoption forms for Kiyoko as well, finding the time in his busy schedule to take them to her parents and convince them to fill them out. “What if they say no?” Koushi asks, wide-eyed, following him to the door.  
            Discomfort sweeps through the foyer and Takeda fiddles with his glasses, gulps, avoids eye contact. “They...don't. They won't, I mean. Don't worry.”  
             “Can I come?”  
            “I’m not sure that’s the best idea, Koushi. Don’t worry, I won’t be long, and I don’t have class tomorrow, so we can do whatever you’d like. Okay?”  
            “Okay,” Koushi assents, shoulders drooping. “Are you adopting Kiyoko?”  
            “I am. Are you alright with that?”  
            “I want her to be happy. She isn’t always. Is that gonna make her happy?”  
            Takeda crouches down so he’s at eye level with him (he doesn’t have to bend as far anymore, Koushi notes with pride). “I’m sure it will.”  
            “Can I tell her?”  
            “Yes, go ahead. I’ll be back soon.” Takeda pats him on the shoulder and goes through his messenger bag a final time to ensure that everything is in order. “Bye, Koushi!”  
            “Bye, Takeda! See you soon!” He stands in the doorway and waves until Takeda climbs into his van and begins to drive away. Kiyoko is in her room, starting the spelling worksheet Takeda gave them for homework. “Kiyoko!” he screams as he bursts through the door, watches the paper she’s working slowly through slide off the desk and flutter to the floor. “Takeda’s adopting you!”  
            “....What?”  
            “Takeda is gonna adopt you! Which I guess makes you kind of my sister but you don’t have to call me your brother if you don’t want since we are best friends but...but it’s so exciting!”  
            Kiyoko stares at him for a few moments longer, still processing the information he’s presented to her, before her pencil goes flying across the room as she leaps to her feet, sharing in his shrieks of joy. “I get to stay here forever!” she bawls, tackling Koushi to the floor and hugging him so tight he struggles to breathe.  
            Her happiness is almost as suffocating as her embrace, and Koushi knows it already; the enormous relief, the hatred of a parent replaced by the love for someone who has offered everything to make it better, the brilliance of his idolization of Takeda. He hugs her back and laughs because she’s laughing, cries because she’s crying, and when Takeda arrives home with a smile on his face they hug him, too, and cry some more.  
            This is good, Koushi thinks. This is what they need. Someone to help everyone like them.  
            At Koushi’s suggestion, Takeda makes it a personal mission to seek out any mutant in need of guidance, taking Akiteru on walks through bustling cities, watching the news avidly for any sign of unusual behaviour in the children of Japan.  
            They find Asahi first, after he overturns a car in his haste to catch his runaway cat. Unfortunately, the cat also suffers injuries from the level of strength Asahi possesses. Nothing life-threatening, his parents keep assuring him, but he’s heartbroken about having hurt her nonetheless. Takeda brings Koushi and Akiteru both to visit him at home, where they meet with his parents in the living room. They’ve suspected for a while. Most of the things he touches break. He’s been reluctant to touch anything lately, and the cat and car were his breaking point. Asahi holds his hands to his chest the whole time they talk, refuses to touch with anyone, and guilt and anxiety roll of him in waves that only Koushi is aware of.  
            He creeps across the room to sit with him while the adults interact, introduces himself and asks how he is.  
            Asahi sighs. “I’m alright. I hurt my cat, though.”  
            “I heard. She’s going to be okay, your parents said. Have you gone to see her?”  
            “I feel bad,” Asahi says, shaking his head, hair flopping down over his eyes. He doesn’t use as much caution fixing his hair as he does doing everything else, Koushi notices. He must not be able to hurt himself with his own strength. “I was so scared she was never gonna come back if I let her get away that I grabbed her too hard. She probably hates me.”  
            “No, she doesn’t,” Koushi insists, touching his shoulder lightly and recoiling at the rush of fear that spikes through Asahi’s whole body. “You saved her. She’ll be grateful.”  
            Asahi sniffles and looks him in the eye, letting his hands rest in his lap. “Thanks. Um, what do you do? Like, with your…?” He makes a tiny sweeping gesture with one hand.  
            “This!” He starts flushing out all of Asahi’s negative emotions by overflowing his mind with positivity. Warm summer days, new video games, his favourite books, helping Takeda make breakfast, the knowledge that Kiyoko and so many other kids can feel as free and accepted as he does with his new family. Asahi immediately begins to relax, a smile creeping onto his face.  
            “Oh, wow. I wish I could do that. I feel wayyyy better now. Thanks,” he says again, and Koushi gives him a miniature salute.  
            “No problem! It’s what I do best. Do you think you’ll come to the school with us?”  
            “Uh...I dunno. I think I’d miss my parents. Can you help me figure out how to stop hurting everything I touch?”  
            “Sure!” Koushi points at Takeda, who is sliding a pen and papers across the coffee table to Asahi’s parents. “Him and the Headmaster helped me figure how to control what I do! And Kiyoko -- you haven’t met her, she’s kind of my sister but she’s just my best friend -- can make it easier. You’ll see!”  
            Asahi hums thoughtfully. “I mean...alright. If it’ll help. Thanks again, Koushi.”  
            “Ahh, you can just call me Suga,” he laughs, waving a hand absentmindedly in the air.  
            “Oh, sorry! Thanks, _Suga_ ,” Asahi tries again, and stands to bow deeply to Koushi, who turns red from his collarbone to his hairline.  
            “It’s no problem, honest!” he squeaks, and Akiteru starts giggling across the table.  
            “Mom, dad,” Asahi says, turning and bowing to his parents as well. “If it’s alright with you, I’d like to attend the academy with Suga, please!”  
            “Of course, darling,” his mom says, though she looks tearful and Koushi can sense apprehension behind her bravery. She’s worried her son will never learn to control his strength, will be seen as a monster, will never love himself because he’s dangerous. Koushi rubs his forehead and tries to reassure her through emotions alone that he’ll be fine, they’ll all be _fine_.  
            They make plans to have Asahi dropped off at the school the following Sunday, so he can start classes with Suga and Kiyoko on Monday. Takeda presents them with a copy of the curriculum, which is identical to the typical first grade curriculum, with the addition of several hours per week dedicated specifically to one-on-one training with the most suitable mentors available to help them learn how to manage their abilities.  
            Suga finds himself unable to sleep that night, looking forward to Asahi’s arrival and wondering just how many more people are out in the world waiting for their help.  
            He swears to himself that he’s going to find them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is like a tiiiiiny chapter to tide you over until the next one, which is pretty much finished anyway. I just wanted to get some stuff out of the way before I got too far ahead of myself. Listen to the song Friends by Hedley just bc I like it.


End file.
